When Vikings rookie cornerback Asher Allen went back and looked at the film of his performance Sunday at Pittsburgh, one thing stood out.

“I was just happy to see me on film,” Allen joked.

It was the first time Allen, a third-round draft pick, played this season after being on the inactive list during the first six games. He made the most of his opportunity.

Allen made two big plays in the fourth quarter. With about six minutes left, he showed he could contribute on special teams when he made a big tackle on the Steelers return ace Stefan Logan, preventing a potential big play.

“He’s a fighter,” defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier said of Allen. “He’s something else. A rookie, who hasn’t dressed at all this season, and to go in there and make a play — whoa — in a very tense, tense environment. So, he showed me something.”

Later, Allen forced a fumble when he blitzed Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, showing the guile of a veteran when he poked the ball out from behind.

“Coaches have always instilled the attitude that whenever it’s your time to (play), make sure that you produce when you go in there, and I wanted to make sure I didn’t let the team down when I was in there,” Allen said. “I did what I had to do this week coming up to prepare. But the coaches made great calls out there and just allowed our players to make plays, including myself.”

Allen said he was encouraged by his play but that after a loss, especially, there’s always plenty of room for improvement.

Frazier also was pleased with veteran Karl Paymah, who started at left corner in place of injured Antoine Winfield. Paymah was solid in coverage.

“Paymah had a real good week of practice,” Frazier said. “He knew the bull’s-eye would probably be on him. And, from what I could see, it looked like he stood up and did a good job.”

How to welcome Favre? The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is running an interesting poll on its Web site. And the results might be more mixed than you’d think. Here’s the question being posed: “If you’re in the stands at Lambeau Field when Brett Favre is introduced, do you boo or cheer him?”

As of late Tuesday afternoon, 45 percent of the responses said Favre should be booed, while 35 percent said cheer him, and 20 percent said they would do nothing. There were more than 25,000 responses.

Slinging the football: Favre attempted 51 passes at Pittsburgh, the most he’s thrown in a game since Week 2 of the 2006 season, when he threw 55 times. Coach Brad Childress said he would like to keep the number of throws lower.

“You always like to be able to exert your will and run it all the time,” Childress said. “Sometimes logic dictates that you don’t, and you need to spread people out a little bit more and do some other things.”

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